Mobile Suit Gundam Seed E3 2004 Preshow Impressions

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed is a game from Bandai, based on its popular Gundam license, which will put you in control of the mechs from the popular anime franchise. The game demo we played gave us a brief taste of what to expect from the game's unique control setup, which takes advantage of the Nintendo DS' touch-screen feature. The game alternates between displaying gameplay and anime cutscenes between both screens and requires you to use the DS' stylus to select choices on the lower screen as you play.

When you start the demo, the lower touch screen will let you select from a few different mechs as you fly off into space to engage in combat. Once there, you'll look around and approach enemies by boosting with the DS face buttons. Your display in the lower touch screen will change to show the enemies near you. You'll engage enemies by tapping them on the touch screen and by calling up a menu of attack commands that you can select from using the stylus. Once your attack is selected, a cinematic plays and you dole out your punishment. In the demo we played, our mech decimated our targets with just one attack, although we expect the final game's challenge to be a bit more significant.

The graphics in the game are a respectable mix of crisp 2D visuals for the cinematics and clean 3D models for the mechs. The assorted effects used for space combat--as we roamed around looking for enemies--were quite good and gave the impression that there was an ongoing battle around us. The audio was sparse but offered up some decent explosions and a tune to accompany the action. Look for more on Mobile Suit Gundam Seed from the E3 show floor and in the coming months.